Noah's Pudding serves up delicious diversity of creation

Robin Conn / The Huntsville TimesEmel Aygun offers a bowl of Ashura, "Noah's Pudding," to Talha Budak, 3, at left, and to her son, Enes Aygun, 4. The sweet mixture of grains, fruits, nuts and beans commemorates Noah and his family and followers surviving the biblical Flood. HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Ashura - the traditional Turkish Noah's Pudding - may well be the oldest recipe in the world.

Satilmis Budak and Ramazan Aygun, representatives of the Peace Valley Foundation, a Muslim organization committed to interfaith understanding and good will, will be sharing a taste of the unusual porridge tonight, following the 7 p.m. service at Temple B'nai Sholom, 103 Lincoln St., and on Jan. 31, 10 a.m., at Monte Sano United Methodist Church, 601 Monte Sano Blvd.

Turkish Muslims and Christians traditionally share the sweet dish full of surprising ingredients with their neighbors during the Islamic month of Muharram, which, this year, ends this week.

Like all the best recipes, Noah's Pudding also comes with a good story, according to Aygun, a computer science professor at UAH. Aygun's wife, Emel Aygun and Hatice Budak, Satilmis' wife, prepared a pot of Ashura last week to take to their neighbors.

Rainbow cooking

At the beginning of this story is Noah, his family, all those animals, and, in the version of the story recorded in the Quran, a few others who had believed him and joined his family on the Ark.

For more than a year they had been crammed into the big wooden ship, riding waves the size of mountains, mourning those who had died in the flood.

Finally, on the 10th day of Muharram, according to the Quran, the Ark bumped into one of the mountains in eastern Turkey.

The people tumbled out into the sodden world with very little left in their food sacks.

Noah called them together. Each was to bring what they could: handfuls of dried beans, a scoop of wheat, a measure of barley, a bag of raisins, a few nuts.

Someone found a forgotten sack of sugar. Another found some dried apricots and a bit of cinnamon.

Robin Conn / The Huntsville TimesNoah's Pudding, Ashura, can be garnished with glistening pomegranate berries.They put the ingredients together in water - one pictures a caldron over a fire of driftwood under a rainbowed sky - and, behold: There was plenty for everyone to eat and get the energy needed to begin the work of re-building the world.

"Through the generosity of God, there was enough," Ramazan said as he watched his wife dip up bowls of the fragrant pudding.

Robin Conn / The Huntsville TimesHatice Budak dips a bowl of Noah's Pudding. The ingredients join foods not usually eaten together - beans and raisins, cinnamon and barley. Ashura becomes a kind of culinary example of the diversity of Creation and of how that diversity can come together to create something surprisingly delicious.

To share it among neighbors is to symbolically care for each neighbor on this Ark of the Earth.

And the natural ingredients have another advantage, too.

"It's healthy," said Satilmis Budak, who is a professor of electrical engineering at A&M. "Except for me, maybe not so healthy because I eat so much."

Budak joined the laughter around the table and reached for a second helping.

Sweet bridges

This is a good time of year for Jews to hear an unusual story from another tradition about care of Creation, said Rabbi Beth Bahar, rabbi at Temple B'nai Sholom, Huntsville's Reform congregation.

Jews celebrate Tu B'shevat next week, a festival that commemorates the beginning of the "New Year for the Trees," since the earliest trees begin to bud at this time of year in Israel. The festival has become a time to study ways to help heal the earth through conservation and ecological repair.

"We've turned this into a festival that looks at ways of doing God's love," said Pam Rhodes, who is co-director of the Temple's religious school. "It has become a holiday that focuses on ecology, on 'tikkun olam,' on repairing the world."

Noah's Pudding

(as with any traditional recipe, there are almost as many versions of this as there are ingredients. This one makes about 30 servings.)

Soak in water overnight, then boil until soft:

1 cup wheat, rice, barley or combination of grains

1 cup dried white beans

1 cup dried garbanzo beans

1 cup almonds

Soak in boiling water until soft.

Some drain the grain, saving some of the liquid, and puree part of the base mixture and then stir the remaining grains and beans back into the thickened mixture for a creamier texture.

Add:

1 cup raisins (many soak these in hot water first to soften)

3/4 cup peanuts

12 dried apricots, chopped

Maybe some chopped, dried figs.

5 1/2 cups sugar

Boil hard for 10-15 minutes. Consistency will be like a watery rice pudding.